Capitalism, says Social Philosopher Irving Kristol, "is based on private property, where normal economic activity consists of commercial transactions between consenting adults." The idea seems elementary enough: people have the right to acquire and trade property in a free market, to start and build enterprises without fear of government intervention or confiscation, to expand or languish according to their own abilities. But when early Enlightenment thinkers began to propagate that simple philosophy in the 18th century, it represented a scandalous revolution in a world in which the individual was merely a subject of caste, church and state. Europe for centuries had been under the sway of authority and tradition. Everyone had a place, and there was no place for an entrepreneur. The early Church Father St. Jerome had said it all: "A man who is a merchant can seldom if ever please God."
Prices were to be set at a "just" level so that everyone covered costs and earned enough to support him self. Anything more was avarice. A person's position was established by his family's guild, brotherhood or order.